Welcome to the Future! As announced by Peregrino Felipe yesterday, today marks the inauguration of “The “B Team” filling in on Fridays. Usually, the “B Team” denotes the Junior Varsity, or at least “second string” players getting their shot in the limelight. Well, that’s partly true here as well, since none of us on the Bureau Chiefs Roster can fill the Big Shoes of Camino Phil. But, the purpose to is fill in and give the big guy a break once a week with this exceedingly long-running Blog. But, technically, for this “B Team” the “B” denotes Bureau Chiefs. A title we wear with some embarrassment as we don’t know how we got it, or what to do with it!

This missive goes out to many more folks than we were privileged to meet at the Veranda, so an introduction is in order: I’m Pilgrim Farmer John of Iowa. I’m the “Midwest Bureau Chief”. My so-far only Camino was in 2013, when I walked from Le Puy, France, to Finnesterre, Spain. My dear wife, Cathy, walked the last 110 kilometers into Santiago with me, and our middle daughter, Kelley, also joined us for several days. It was a total delight! My intent is to return in 2023 accompanied by a grand daughter, who will have just graduated from high school.

The other Bureau Chiefs will make their own introductions as they take their turns on successive Fridays. Not all of them are pictured above, but that shot is the only one we have available of the four of us who were at the Veranda.

I’m approaching my word limit imposed by Phil, so I’ll add this broad brush Thanks You to all the attendees at the Veranda, and the incredible hospitality of Rebecca and Phil to make it oh, so good! It’s nice that we can already start saying ‘Looking forward to Next Year!”

I don’t have all those cool sign offs that Phil comes up with, so I’ll go with the standard farewell by all old Marines,

Semper Fidelis,

PFJ

Just picked some Golden Jubilee for Jim and Richard. They walk with me quite often. Jim spent a lot of time weeding with me back in June and helped plant in May, It was a lot of work in June. Right now the picking is the easy part.

We have the wood stove hauled out of the house. It needs a rebuild before the heating season. Getting ready for Fall here at the Ranch, transition time.

I have been lagging on writing about the Veranda celebration. Still too new I guess. It had a lot of moving parts for me and they need sorting out. But I also need to say that the Bureau Chiefs have volunteered to take over blogging Friday’s to give me a break. The plan was to do that on a rotating basis. And I think that we have Farmer John slated to do tomorrow’s. So stand by for that.

Off I go loves, Felipé.

A pretty time of the year, morning fog and afternoon sun. The leaves are starting to turn and some of the winter birds are starting to arrive.

Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1600-1700 (tapas after)
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1600-1700 (tapas after)

When the time changes here pretty soon the afternoon walk will start at 1530 till spring.

Felipé.

Here is a link to pics collected on Saturday by Jim Meiklejohn:

pics from Veranda Day Two

tuesday loves, Felipé.

bunch – o – loves, Felipé.

It’s St Giles feast day today. Father David had a great homily on hospitality and how St Giles opened a monastery along the Camino to shelter pilgrims on their trek across Spain. I did some reading on my own afterward and I couldn’t find any of that. But hospitality is a great topic and St Giles lived in the seventh – eighth century which is plenty of time to lose details. Maybe Father David just wanted to talk about the Camino which is a definite possibility.

Hospitality is my one word that I boil down all my Camino experiences into. When Kelly and I walked we said that we were going to let the Camino take care of us, no worries. And that happened, we were held by the trail. Cris CSABC said recently her one word was beauty which I can totally understand. That’s probably a close second with me.

Have visitors so please forgive me I must go and be hospitable!

boiling it down loves, Felipé.

Reflections of Re

Refreshed & renewed reflections remain
Retrospections restores restitutions
Remembrances recalled retains renovations
Realizations redetermine replications

Renaissance reasons regard recognition
Rewriting reconstructs reverberations
Rejoicing reclaimed responses (un)restraining
Reminiscing releases reciprocations

Relaxing reevaluations readjusts reservations
Restoration rebuilds reparations
Restitution received releases recriminations
Retrospection restores recalculations

Resplendent revisions require revelations
Reconciliations reflect regeneration
Replaced reformations repairs reconnections
Resurrection restores recalibration

relax
remember
return
restart
retrace
reboot
reassign
reprioritize
reduce
retrain
reinstall
revolve
resemble
return
resend
reschedule
reconsider
reconcile
resume
retrace
react
recharge
reactivate
resolve
resist
reconnect
reprogram
reestablish
restate
retell
reevaluate
recalculate
repurpose
redo
restart
redouble
revamp
recalibrate
reassure
reinvigorate
redeem

redoubled love, Felipé.

Yea, we are charged up and ready for the year ahead and whatever it will bring. All we have to do is save our nickels and dimes to catch some transportation back here to the Island, to the Ranch, to the Trail, to each other. August 21st to the 24th for 2020.

I’m finally taking a breath here on the red leather couch, home of the Caminoheads blog. Everyone is gone and on their way. Still some more straightening up to do here but it will happen in the next week. Farmer John helped me count up the donations and we collected $800 even. That’s plenty to cover the port-a-potties and the rest with maybe a little left over. I think that I will be mailing some packages with left behind gear and such so maybe there are a few more expenses.

But we did good, no major catastrophes. Didn’t start any fires. No gear damaged. No feelings hurt hopefully. Some things are being repurposed and put to use for other things. The stage is down and half of it turned into a new bin for kindling for instance. Life at the Ranch goes on.

It is my hope that whatever takes place over the next year we can use the good memories of the Veranda to counter balance any bad news that comes along. We have banked a lot of goodness which we can use to our advantage when maybe things turn bleak. We know how to do this now. There is a lot of power in the knowledge that we are loved, that we are capable, that we belong. We are safely in the “flow of pilgrims” that will take us home.

life goes on loves, Felipé.

Farmer John is fresh up and off picking blackberries and dropping them directly into his cereal bowl. His last day here. We have been sorting through the debris of the party. And maybe we are working slowly and not really wanting it cleaned up. And some of it is to be saved as part of the kit for next year.

Yes, next year, the Veranda next year. I never would have guessed that it would be so well received to have an immediate encore. But we have scheduled it already for August 21-24, pretty much the same four day weekend. Corn and blackberry season and still summer vacation for the kids and teachers.

We picked ten dozen ears of corn over three days to feed folks and really didn’t put a serious dent in the supply. So stop by if you are local for some to take with you. Still the plenitude of berries also.

I am hearing from folks that they got home safely and hoping everyone does. Farmer John is taking off this noontime for his flight. And then I think I will sleep for three days.

I’m going to go for now. Have to keep Farmer John busy so he doesn’t get into trouble. Later, love you, Felipé.